AndoverMagSpring2015

THEROARofAndover’sGender Springby Corrie MartinThere is a global crisis in the educationof girls today. Sixty-two milliongirls worldwide, half of themadolescents the age of PA students, arenot in school. Others bravely attendschool under a daily threat of violenceand even death. Because educatinggirls is a human rights issue, as well asa proven path to progress in economic,public health, political, and social sectors,the United States has pledged—through initiatives like Let Girls Learnand the U.N.’s Global Education First—to assist the most distressed communitiesaround the world in finding ways toempower girls to attend and completeschool. In many of these areas, prevailingbiases against the educational rightsand needs of girls are the first of thebarriers that need to be addressed.After Equality: Striving for EquityHere in the U.S., the “equity earthquake”that rocked our own malecenteredpolicies and institutions ofeducation occurred less than half acentury ago with the adoption intolaw of Title IX of the EducationAmendments of 1972. As PA historyinstructor Kathleen Dalton observedin A Portrait of a School, her trenchant1986 study of the first decade afterthe merger of Abbot and Phillipsacademies, the equity earthquake “isstill sending aftershocks throughoutAmerican education.” Today, morethan 40 years into the Title IX era,schools everywhere are challengedby “the difference between surfaceequality and genuine equity,” observesSoraya Chemaly ’84, now an influentialfeminist writer, media critic, andactivist. “Policies and numbers tell onestory and the lived experiences of realpeople often tell another,” she says. “It’simportant to pay attention to both.”Perhaps that is why the events of spring2013, a confluence of student-drivenactivism and actions that Daltonreferred to at the time as “GenderSpring,” were so shocking to the PAcommunity—shocking in the senseof taking many by surprise and in thesense of providing a much-neededjolt to the system of a school thathad worked hard and long to createa successful coeducational ethos.Clearly, progress has been madeon many fronts: In 1994, after twodecades of incremental progress, thestudent body finally achieved a gender•1972A PA report finds “special students” (i.e., “low testers,African Americans, A Better Chance, and disadvantagedstudents”) are more likely to fail; this represents thebeginning of an institutional recognition of a preparation gap.| | | An Abbot and Andover student questionnaireAbbot students form the Afro-American38 Andover | Spring 2015•1972reveals that boys have a higher opinion of theirabilities in “science, mechanics, mathematics” thangirls have of their own abilities in those areas.•1973Center and are given special late-nightsign-ins to attend African American dancesat other schools.